Amazing Archive of High-Res Photos From NASA’s Gemini Missions

There’s something about old photographs. The perfect combination of faded light, outdated coloring, and nostalgia seems to make them more beautiful with age.

Perhaps that’s why this collection of images from NASA’s Gemini Program is so great. The Project Gemini Online Digital Archive, released this weekend by NASA and Arizona State University, features high-resolution digital scans from the original Gemini flight films.

As NASA’s second human spaceflight program, which had 10 manned flights between 1965 and 1966, Gemini saw such milestones as the first American spacewalk, first week-long spaceflight, and the first docking maneuver with another vehicle in space. The success of these objectives paved the way for the Apollo program, which immediately followed Gemini and landed the first men on the moon.

Here, Wired presents some of the highlights from this archive.

Above:

Lost in Contemplation

Astronaut Ed White, the first American to walk in space, looks at the beauty outside his capsule. His copilot, Jim McDivitt, took this photograph during the Gemini IV mission.

Oceans and Deserts

The top image comes from the Gemini IV mission and shows the Arabian Peninsula, featuring Wadi Hadhramaut in Yemen. The lower photo is a shot of the western Pacific Ocean, just past the Galápagos Islands.

Rendezvous in Space

The sister missions, Gemini VI-A and VII, performed the first rendezvous in space between two manned spacecraft. They came within a foot of one another and could have docked, had they been equipped with the right rigging. The image above is a view of Gemini VII from the VI-A spacecraft.

Docking in Space

The Gemini VIII mission docked with the unmanned Agena craft, seen floating above the world in this image. This technique was utilized later on during the Apollo missions to attach the crew module with the lunar lander.

Open Hatch

Buzz Aldrin, who would later become the second man to walk on the moon, looks back at the camera in the above photo from the Gemini XII mission. Below is the nose of the capsule, the final spacecraft to fly for the Gemini program.